


An Odd, But Perfect, Match- FreshPaper: Nerd and Jock AU- Undertale

by Autumn_Days



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU, F/F, Gay, Gen, M/M, Multi, No Smut, Undertale AU, blogthegreatrouge, nerd and jock, undertale - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 07:50:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15335253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autumn_Days/pseuds/Autumn_Days
Summary: Fresh has an almost perfect life. He keeps on top of his homework, has great, nerdy friends and keeps out of the way of the troublemakers- The Jocks. But that all changes one fateful autumn day. The day when he crosses the schools biggest hot-shot, PaperJam.





	1. Chapter One

*Beep Beep Beep Beep!* 

The obnoxious beeping of his phones 7:30am alarm wakes Fresh from his deep, dreamless sleep. Groaning, he pulls one hand out from under the cozy covers of his bed and feels around the edge of his bedside table for the cool screen of his phone. Upon finding it, he taps the screen a few times until the beeping stops. 

Giving a long sigh, Fresh opens his, eye sockets, reveling unusual purple-colored eye in his left socket and his soul in his right, his vision blurry from sleep and his naturally bad sight. Moving his hand from his phone, he reaches for the fuzzy shape of his oval-lensed glasses. After snatching them from the table, unfolding them and gently pushing them onto the bony bridge of his nose, Fresh looks around the room that has been his for the last four and a half years since he started Flowey Highschool.

The room itself was square and relatively small, with just enough room for a decent sized oak wood study desk, a tall wooden bookself, stuffed with neatly ordered books and a couple of rows of movies, a small space heater by the door, a twin sized bed and bed side table. The walls are painted a misty sky blue, probably to keep the room gender-nuteral and the pale silver carpet was so thick, soft and spongey that it sank a little whenever you walked across it. 

The bed's pushed up against the right wall, and from where Fresh is lying, he can see though the open door into his small kitchenette. On the wall next to his bed is a largish mounted TV, the DVD player sitting on a small shelf next to the TV. At the bottom of Fresh's vision he can just make out the middle tone blue duvet that lies across the top of the pile of blankets that keeps him warm against the late autumn chill.

Resting on the small bedside table is a lamp with a cream fabric covering and a navy blue outline of a mountion range printed on the side of it, a glass of water and Fresh's Iphone, the case a deep blue with pastle green and pinks splattered over it. Shoved up against the left wall is Fresh's study desk that homes his black laptop, laptop bag, blue headpones, school books, pencil case, sketching book, sketching pencils, colouring pencils, pens and school books. 

Nextdoor to the right of the desk is the smooth wooden door that leads to Fresh's walk-in wardrobe, that inside he knows holds his selection of clothes hung up neatly.

Sitting to the left of the desk is his bookshelf, mostly filled with books, the types of books ranging from action books like the CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore, to romantic books like Twilight (Which is his guilty pleasure. Yes, Fresh's guilty pleasure is Twilight.), but the top two shelfs are full of movies, mainly boxsets of SmallVille,The Simsons, various movies from the 90's and many different types of animes and cartoons.

Tucked away in the corner of the north wall is the door that leads from the bedroom to Fresh's tiny, white bathroom.

In between the doorway and the space heater is a lonely little gap that Fresh's multi-colored skate-board usually rests, but is currently by his front door, waiting to be used. 

Letting out another small sigh, Fresh swings his legs out from under the covers and changes out of his PJ's, a soft baby-blue t-shirt that's a size too big for him and some purple pajama pants with black pencils scattered over it, into his school clothes, a light magenta t-shirt, a zip-up hoodie with middle-tone blue going to the shoulders, a white stripe through the hood. Half way down his chest the blue brakes off with a white stripe that has YoLo each side of the zipper, in yellow and blue lettering, printed in the middle of the stripe -the blue is replaced by a pleasant shade of purple on the other side of the stripe- some vibrant grass-green jeans that fade in to black, black suspenders hanging limply at his sides, held onto his jeans by gold clips, old worn blue and white gel-soled sneakers, and light blue fingerless gloves.

He'd taken the cloths out of his closet the night before and had folded them neatly on the end of his bed. 

After pulling the hood over his head and making sure that the zipper on his hoodie is resting just above the white stripe on his chest, Fresh stands up, walks out of his bedroom and into his kitchenette. After making and eating a bowl of CoCo Pops, with lots of milk, he ducks into his bathroom, cleans his teeth before going back into his bedroom to grab his headphones and phone. 

After carefully putting everything into his bag, and making sure that he has the books that he needs for the day, he slings it onto his back. Taking a deep breath, Fresh opens the door of his boarding room in the schools hostel, sticks his head out, checks both ways down the hall, listens out for the few resident Jocks, and after making sure the coast is clear, he glides down the hall on his skate-board, speeding to get to his first class of the day, rapping on the third door away from his room, a wake up call for his little brother, Cray, so that he won't be late for class.

********* 

By the time Fresh gets to the Science room, he's breathless. With one gloved hand against the wall, holding him up, Fresh uses the other to push open the door and shove his skateboard into his bag, risking letting go of the wall to stumble into the room and join his small group of friends sitting in the middle of the sea of desks.

Alphys is the first one to notice Fresh's arrival. She waves at him happyly, her yellow anime cat head pin bobbing from it's place pinned on Alphys'green woolen turtle neck. Fresh slides onto the seat next to the yellow reptillian monster and starts pulling his Science books out of his bag. 

"Hi Fresh..." Nabstablook says quietly to him, his ghostly body swaying to the music coming from the black MTT headphones perched on top of his head.

"Greetings, Fresh!" Papyrus greets happily, bouncing a little in his seat, his shockingly bold red gloves, scarf and boots swaying with his movements, making his chocolate brown turtleneck and jeans seem ridiculously dull. 

"Hey broesphs." Fresh greets his friends.

Before anyone can start a new conversation, the teacher walks in and starts the lesson, and them being the Nerds they are, they pay full attention. 

*********

"Okay, thank you class, I'll see you all later this week!" The teacher dismisses his class. Fresh sighs as he packs up his stuff. Next he had the only core class the none of his friends were in; English. "See ya guys later." Fresh waves goodbye to his friends as he walks out the door, takes his skateboard out of his bag and heads off to his next class, eyes on look out for Jocks the entire way. 

*********

Fresh sighs in relief as he arrives to class with out drawing the attention of any Jocks. Sure, he might not be one of their main targets, but being a Nerd, he can never be to careful, because if he does one thing wrong BOOM, he and his friends have targets on their backs, though, there are some Jocks that aren't jerks and will be civil about things... 

You see, most of the school is divided into two types of people, Nerds and Jocks. Jocks are the people who like sport and get good grades in P.E. and average scores in core subjects and Nerds are the ones who get good grades academically and are stereotypically bad at P.E. . Some Jocks enjoy bullying Nerds because they're physically bigger than them, but not all Jocks enjoy doing this and just leave the Nerds alone, while some only do it when a Nerd annoys them or hurts their family. Nerds mainly try and keep out of the Jocks way and avoid them by hanging out in places like the library, Maths rooms, Movie Study/ Making rooms, Art rooms and Tech rooms.

Plopping his pelvis onto his seat on the right end of the middle row, Fresh starts to pull out his two English books, opening one onto a fresh page and putting the date in the margin. Once he's satisfied that he's ready for the lesson, he lifts his head, looking towards the front of the class, ready for the teacher to come in and start the lesson, before immediately pulling it back down when he sees that the occupant of the seat in front of him has just arrived. 

The first three seats on the right end of the second row are all taken up by Jocks, and these aren't the nice Jocks, these three Jocks just happen to be the most popular monsters in Fresh's year group, if not the whole school, also some of the nastiest.

BurgerPants, also known as BP, was in the seat farthest away from Fresh, one ginger paw was holding his head, his cat-like face had bordom written all over it as he looked at the front of the class. The lesson hadn't even started yet and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but here.The hand that wasn't holding his head played with something in the pocket of his red hoodie. 

Undyne, the schools main bully, was sitting in the second to last seat in the row, typing something on her phone with one scaled hand, the fin like things on the side of her head twiching in annoyance, and Fresh can just imagine her sharp fangs frowning and her visible, un-ingered, eye norrowing at the her phones screen through her firey red hair. As the blue fish-like moster put her phone back in the pocket of her jeans, she moved her hand to fiddle with the rim of the leather jacket that she wears all year round over her grubby white T-shirt.

And sitting infront of Fresh is the captain of both the football and basketball teams, the sportiest, most popular, monster in probably the whole school, PaperJam, or PJ as his friends call him. He's pulling his books out of his school bag, little bits of his pitch black skull floating off the right side of his head and disappearing into thin air. PJ dumps his stuff onto his desk before raising one skeletal hand to scratch the side of his face with the yellow tips of his otherwise pink phlanges and black hands, just above one of the twin little spalters of orange and yellow paint that were permintly on both his cheeks, and the other hand dives into the pocket of his blue letterman jacket that has a pale yellow hood with a black stipe through the middle of it, white sleeves, and P J on the front and the back in large, bold, black lettering. 

Fresh continues to look down at his desk, doing his best to be small and quiet, trying as hard as he can to stay invisible to the Jocks, but it probably doesn't matter anyway, PaperJam doesn't even know he exists and BP and Undyne only regard him to trip him up in the hallways occasionly.

Much to his relief, the teacher soon comes in and starts the lesson. 

*********

Fresh starts to quickly pack his stuff up as soon as the bell goes for interval, not wanting to stick around any longer. He pulls himself off his seat, pushes his chair in, and hurry's towards the door with his eyes to the ground, his skateboard under his arm. Just as he's about to make it out the door, he crashes into someone. Hard. He just manages to stay on his feet. 

Looking up to apologize to who ever he crashed into, he finds himself staring into the unusual, and slightly annoyed, eyes of PaperJam.

Fresh feels his body freeze, his eyelight and soul shrink in his sockets and his words die in his throat. Shit, this isn't good. Isn't this is exactly what he's been trying to avoid for the last four years? 

"Watch where your going shorty." PJ snaps at Fresh.

The smaller skeleton narrows his eyesockets in responce. 

"I'm not short, your all just way to tall, and I'm not the one who's loitering in the door way like a frigging numskull." Fresh snaps, glaring up at PaperJam, before realizing his mistake.

He's just violated the one rule of the damn universe: Don't piss off a Jock, especially not the captain of the football team. Way to go, Fresh. 

"Great Gods of Fudge." Fresh curses under his breath as he somehow squeezes past PJ and bolts down the hall, his bag bouncing on his back and the Jocks footsteps getting closer and closer to him.

In about 50 seconds flat, Fresh feels his bag being grabbed, stopping him short and in no time at all he's shoved up against the lockers lining the wall, held up off the ground by PJ's fist curled in his top, his skateboard clattering to the floor. 

"What did you say to me?" PaperJam growls.

Fresh takes a moment to study the Jocks face before he answers. How did he never notice how handsome PJ's face was, not that he'd really had a chance to look at it before now, or how gorgeous his eyes, one orange and one blue, the blue with a golden star around it, were? Wait, what? 

Fresh feels the tired cyan flush on his face turn into a full blown midnight blue blush.

"Well?" PJ snarls. 

"I said you were loiterng in the damn doorway." Fresh says back, looking away in a futile attempt to hide his blush, a little unsure of himself.

In responce, Fresh gets slammed into the lockers again, making him moan in pain. 

"Say that again, I didn't quite hear you." PaperJam hisses.

"N-nothing." Fresh mumbles, not looking to the Jocks face. 

"That's what I thought." PJ growls, dropping Fresh onto the ground and walking away, leaving the Nerd leaning against the lockers.

Fresh slowly stands up, rolling and flexing each part of his body testing for pain. His feet hurt from running so damn fast down the hall (but not fast enough), and his shoulder blades and spine hurt from being slammed into the lockers, but other than that, he was fine. 

Oh, wait, that's not true, he's confused. Very, VERY confused. What was he thinking?? PaperJam had him pinned up against a wall threatening him. And he'd been thinking about how attractive the Jock was.

Grumbling, Fresh grabs his board and bag off the ground and rummages through the front pocket until he finds his phone and headphones. After he plugs them together, selects a song in his music library, shoves his phone into his hoodie pocket, slings his bag onto his back, and slides the headphones onto his skull under is hood, he stumbles down the hall to his next class, not bothering to grab is skateboard out of his bag, letting the music block out the outside world, his mind swimming with thoughts from the recent events. 

*********

Fresh somehow manages to get though the rest of the day without any of the bothering any of the other Jocks. He acts like nothings wrong when he's with his friends, but Fresh knows he will have to tell them what happened eventually. Unfortunately, he can barely focus on the lessons, all he can think about is PaperJam. 

That stupid Jock.

With a loud sigh, Fresh opens the door to his dorm and walks in, dumping his bag on the floor next to him, placing his skateboard back in its place and locking the door behind him. He slowly walks over to his dining table, pulls out and sits on one of the four seats around it and unties his shoes, pulling each one off and setting it down beside him. As soon as each shoe's off, he stands up, goes over to his bag, grabs his headphones and phone, walks into his room and sits down at his desk to make a start on his English homework. 

But he only gets a couple of questions done before his mind starts to wonder again.

Fresh is thinking about the same thing that he's been thinking about all day, PaperJam. He just can't stop thinking what happened with PJ, more or less about what he'd been thinking at the time. And he can't get PaperJam's handsome face out of his head. 

Fresh drops his forehead on the desk with a groan.

That stupid Jock. 

*********

Meanwhile, PaperJam's alone in the male football locker room, changing out of his PE uniform after football practice, thinking as he pulls on his light purple T-shirt . 

All day he hasn't been able to focus in class, even less than usual.

All he can think about is that cocky little Nerd with the weird eyes. The weird eyes that reminded PJ of his own. 

That stupid Nerd.

PJ can't stop thinking about how the Nerd had just naturally talked back and defended himself on instinct, even though he was clearly scared of PaperJam. For the most part, it generally ticks him off, but a small part of PaperJam admires his bravery. 

He also can't get the Nerds face out of his head when he had him pinned against the lockers, his full face a deep, rich shade of blue and sweat beading on the side of his skull. Even though he'd refused to look at PaperJam, he'd seen the fear in his eyes, but also defience and determination. Honstly, it was a cute look for him. Wait, what?

PaperJam presses his face to the side of the wall, his face flushing a light purple, and lets out a small groan. 

That stupid Nerd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I wanna say I did originally publish this on Wattpad under the name Silver1warriors.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PJ is maddddddddddddd

Fresh's standing in one of the many hallways at his school, just outside one of the schools two Art room. Students mill around him, rushing to get to their next class. He can't move his feet from the spot he's standing. His mind's telling him that he's waiting for someone, someone important. But who? Father down the hall Fresh can see someone pushing through the crowd, coming towards Fresh. He can't make out who it was from this far away. As the person gets closer and closer, Fresh begins to see who it is. He tries to turn and run, but the best he can do is lift his feet off the ground. The Jock gets closer and closer and Fresh keeps struggling against whatever's holding him down. PaperJam stops a few steps away from Fresh and looks him dead in the eyes and with a soft, gentle, lopsided smile, he speaks. 

"Thanks for waiting for me."

 

*********

Fresh wakes up with a gasp, his head on his desk and hand still holding the pen over his finished English homework from last night. He can hear Wait For It from Hamilton: An American Musical playing from his headphones still resting on his skull. Well that explains the waiting part of the dream, and why his morning alarm didn't go off, but why the heck was he waiting for PJ?? 

Shaking his head to get rid of the last few fragments of the dream, Fresh lifts his head off the table, takes his phone out of his pocket and checks the time. 7:33am Wednesday.

Fresh takes a moment to smile at his lock screen wallpaper, a picture of himself and his friends standing outside Flowey High's gates on their very first day of school, everyone smiling and happy. 

For the heck of it, Fresh punches in his passcode and looks at his home screen wallpaper, which is one of his favorite pictures. Him and his friends were at Comic Con, all dressed in cosplay's that they spent the year making. Every year that they went, they all cosplay as characters from the same anime or cartoon. That year they had decided on Gravity Falls. Fresh, who was holding the camera an arm length away to get himself, and everyone else, in the picture, was dressed as Dipper, his cap pulled down to cover his eyes just a little bit and the 3rd book held close to his chest. Alphys was just behind him to his left dressed as Mable, a stuffed toy Waddles that she'd spent months making held under her arm. Paps was behind him to his right cosplaying as Grunkle Stan, a paper-mashe cash register tucked under his arm, Nabstablook floating just over Papyrus' shoulder as Bill, his Dapper Blook hat sitting proudly on his head. Like the picture on his lockscreen, everyone was smiling and happy. That year at Comic Con had been one of the best.

Fresh let out a happy sigh at the memories as he puts his phone on charge and runs off to get ready for school. 

*********

The first thing Fresh sees when he walks into his first class of the day, Social Studies, is Alphys sitting at her desk, half her face scratched up and bruised and her eyes desperately trying to hold back tears, dirt stains on her pristine white skirt. 

"Oh my Word! Alphys, what happened!" Fresh gasps, running over and kneeling by Alphys' seat to hug his friend.

"N-nothing, it's fine Fresh." Alphys mutters into Fresh's shoulder, her voice wobbly and her speech stuttered, something that Alphys hasn't done in a long time. 

"This is not 'nothing' Alphys. Please, tell me what happened." Fresh begs.

"Okay....I-I was w-walking down the graval path to the Movie Study room, I left m-my Mew-Mew pencil in there yesterday, w-when Undyne came out of n-nowhere. S-she pushed me over and started to g-grind my face into t-the graval with her f-foot. Sh-she said to t-tell m-my an-annoying little f-f-friend that this was just the begining." Alphys tells him, braking down into a sad, desparate heaving sobs. 

"Oh shoot, Alphys, I'm so sorry." Fresh apologizes

"I-it's not your fault Fresh, s-she must of mistaken m-me f-for someone else." She sniffs into his shoulder. 

"But it is," Fresh confesses, "yesterday in English I managed to annoy PaperJam, and now he must be out to get us. I'm so, so sorry that I did this to you guys!"

"W-what?" Alphys gasps before giving a small sigh. "It's okay Fresh." She soothes, "I-It was bound to happen at some point, w-we just have to live with it. A-And who knows, maybe they'll get b-bored of it and leave us alone after a while? But for now, lets just f-focus on Social Studies." 

"Your right, Alph." Fresh smiles, letting go of his friend and looking at the wound on her cheek, "Have you seen the nurse about that yet?"

"Y-yeah, she just sprayed some disinfectent on it and s-said it would be fine." 

"Okay." Fresh nods, taking his seat next to his friend.

********* 

Fresh is still inwardly seething with anger, even after an hour of Social Studies. He so badly wants to hunt down PJ and his friends and give them a peace of his mind, but he knows that that would just end badly for him and his friends, so he just opts to stay quiet and glare at the back of any Jocks that he and Alphys see on their way to their next class; Maths. 

All four of Fresh's friends are in the same Maths class, so while they're waiting for the teacher, Fresh and Alphys tell Papyrus and Blooky what had happened earlier that day and yesterday. They both look a little bit shocked, but are understanding and say that they'll watch their backs. They also offer sympathy for Alphys, and Paps offers to make her some spaghetti after school. Alphys quietly rejects the pasta, saying that she could get some of the sauce in her wound, probably as a cover up for not wanting to eat it, not all of Papyrus' cooking is exactly edible yet.

Papyrus opens his mouth to say something, but quickly closes it with a soft clank as the teacher comes in to start the lesson.

********* 

As soon as the bell goes for morning brake, Fresh and his friends make their way across the other side of the school to the library, the only safe place from the Jocks. When they get there, Fresh holds the door open for his friends to go in while he rummages through his bag, looking for his phone so he can set a timer for when they need to go to class. He looks where he normally puts it, it's not there. He looks in his lunch bag, sometimes he accidentally puts it in there when he's making his lunch. Not there ether.

"Damn it." Fresh growls under his breath. "Hey guys, I lost my phone. I think I left it in Maths, I'm gonna go back and look." 

He calls to his friends through the open door.

"Okay, Fresh, be careful!" Alphys calls to him before turning back to her book. 

Grumbling under his breath, Fresh starts the treak back to his Maths class room, unaware of the moster following him, concealing themself in the safety of the shadows.

********* 

Fresh gets more obnoxious the father he goes from the library, constantly glancing over his shoulder, looking around and checking for Jocks.

As he walks passed the Arts corridor, he can't help but glance at the roughly five by five gap between the corridor and the Hall. It's a short cut to the Maths and Social Studies rooms, he uses it all the time and most people prefer to go the long way past the Workshops to spend a little bit of extra time with their friends, so it wasn't clogged up with lots of rushing monsters, but in his current situation he probably shouldn't. He doesn't want to get cornered.... But on the other hand, the Jocks don't exactly hang around the Maths rooms, so what's the chance that they actually know about it? 

With a shrug, Fresh walks into the deserted area and hurrys along. He doesn't get far, maybe a meter, when he hears a voice behind him that makes his marrow freeze.

"Where ya goin' punk?" 

Fresh spins around to see Undyne, her arms crossed loosely over her body, and a dog-monster, who's peering shyly over her shoulder.

Welp, that's his que to get the heck outta here. 

Fresh turns a little to the right, towards the Social Studies door, ready to bolt, only to see Burger Pants standing in the doorway, smiling coyly down at him.

Shit, he really needs to get out of here. 

Fresh spins back towards the maths room, praying that no one would be blocking his way and he could run for it. Fresh feels his soul sink as he spy's PaperJam, hands in his jean pockets and a victorious grin on his face.

Fuck. He knew he shouldn't of come down here, but did he listen to common sense? NO! 

"Good work Doggo, we can take it from here." PJ says to the dog-monster behind Undyne, before making a largish black femur bone out of thin air and tossing it to Doggo, who snatches it up and scampers off.

'Well, that's just great!' Fresh some how thinks in his of his panic-fumbled brain, 'Now they're getting people to watch us so they can catch us alone.' 

"What the heck do you want, PaperJam." Fresh growls at the Jock, his bony palms in tight, sweaty, fists at his sides, shaking uncontrollably.

"Did you seriously think that we'd be even after just one time?" PJ grins. 

No, no he didn't, but thanks for asking.

"No, it's gonna get worse from here on out, for you and your stupid Nerdy friends. How does it feel to be responsible for bringing this onto them?" PaperJam sneers. Fresh doesn't answer, he just keeps glaring at the Jock, trying to hide his fear. 

"No response? That's fine. It's not like your going to be able to say much after this." The Jock growls, hints of.. Regret in his eyes? Before Fresh can be sure, PJ closes his eyes, shakes his head a little, and when he opens them again, any trace of regret is gone, if it was ever there in the first place.

PaperJam looks at BP and Undyne, and with a nod, they start closing in. 

Shit, this is not going to end well for him unless he can get out, and the only way he can see that happening his with his magic... God, he hates using his wild, unpredictable magic, but unless he wants to be beaten to a pulp he'll have to. With a deep, shuddery breath, Fresh closes is eyes and teleports, with fear, adrenaline and determination pulsing through his bones.

*********

Fresh ends his teleport lying on the carpet of his Maths room floor. Huh, he actually ended up where he wanted to be, that's a first. As the small skeleton begins to scrape himself off the floor, he hisses at a sharp pain in his ankle. Fuck, he must of twisted it when he landed, it wouldn't be the first time. Growling at his pain, Fresh manages to pull himself up and hobble over to his desk, searching for his phone. It's... Not here. Well, that was all for nothing. With a frustrated sigh, Fresh manages to drag himself back to the library. 

*********

PaperJam blinks in surprise as the Nerd just disappears into thin air. Shit, he didn't think that the Nerd had any magic, more or less teleportation. Wait, does that mean he has magic close to PJ's...?

PaperJam gets torn from his train of thought as Undyne gives a frustrated nnngghhhhh and starts to surplex a shocked-looking BurgerPants.


	3. Chapter Three

Fresh pushes open the glass door of the library and starts limping over to his friends, who're talking about what anime they should watch at this Fridays anime night (they like to plan ahead). They're sitting at one of the many wooden tables in the center of the shelf-lined room. 

"I still don't see why we can't watch DragonBallZ, Alphys," Fresh hears Paps complain, "It's a perfectly cool anime for a group of cool people!"

"But we've seen all of DragonBallZ, Papyrus! Let's watch something new! I've herd some really good things about Spirted Away." Alphys counters. 

While those two bicker, Nabstablook is floating over the chair next to Alphys, bobbing to the music coming from his head phones. As Fresh gets closer to his friends, they stop arguing to look at the wounded skeleton.

"Oh my Mew Mew!" Alphys gasps. 

"Fresh, are you okay?" Papyrus asks.

"Did the Jocks find you.......?" Nabstablook questions. 

"I'm fine guys, really," Fresh says," I just... Yeah, the freaking Jocks found me, but I managed to get out before they could hurt me to badly." His friends don't know he can't control his magic, and he plans to keep it that way, because if they find out, there's a good chance they'll offer to help him, and he'll hurt them, just like he hurt he hurt her.....

Shaking his head to get rid of the thoughts dancing around in his head, Fresh sits down with his friend, and directs the conversation back to the anime, and by the time the bell rings to go to their third class of the day, Spirted Away is the overall winner.

"See you later, my bros!" Fresh calls as his friends all sprint off, Paps running to the Drama Theater, Alphys to the Animation rooms and Nabstablook drifting to the Music Studio. With a happy sigh, Fresh heads off to the one of his two selected classes that he'd chosen at the start of this year. 

*********

Fresh pushes open the door to his Art room, only to see he's the first student here, his teacher drawing something on the white board, the black jumper around his waist swaying and his tan sunglasses bobbing on his white skull as he sketches. The teacher turns at the sound of the door squeaking, smiling at Fresh. 

"Morning Fresh! How's your day been?" The he asks.

"It's been good, Mr.Ink, how about you?" Fresh asks politely.

"Not to badly, it just took me forever to get my boyfriends oldest son out of bed," Mr. Ink sighs, one hand reaching up to cradle his left cheek, which always has a smudge of what looks like black ink on it, while the other hand toys with the collar of his light gray shirt under his chocolate V-neck,"He seems to have something on his mind, but he refuses to talk to his father and I about it. He won't even talk to his little brother about it, and he adores him." 

"Well, I hope your son figures it out." Fresh smiles softly.

"I hope so too." Ink sighs, his hands dropping to his sides, the tips of his phalanges brushing his pale brown jeans and his blue eye-lights, one with a bright yellow star around it, dropping to the ground "But it's not your place to listen to my family problems." 

"I honestly don't mind" Fresh says.

"Heh, your always so polite Fresh, now, how about you go sit at your desk and wait for everyone else to arrive while I finish writing." Mr. Ink tells Fresh, who obediently sits at his desk and pulls out his stuff. The room soon starts to full up with students, each one taking their seat next to one of the other students in the little clumps of two desks. And in amongst the throng of crafty students, Fresh's art partner amerges. 

"Hey Fresh!" He chirps.

"Oh, hey Cil," Fresh greets, "How was baseball practice?"

"It was fantastic! We've got some new guys on the team who are really good. Coach is really happy with this years team!" Cil gushes as he pulls out his art supplies, his large emaraled green eye light, the one that wasn't hidden behind a certon of glittery pink hair, most of that hair is held back by a blue sweat band, is sparkling with happiness. 

You see, Cil has been on the baseball team since the end of his Freshman year (Cil has just turned 17, he's a year younger than Fresh, but the option classes are put together by skill, not age), and as far as Fresh knows, has been a huge help the team, but is extremely modest about it. Hell, even is baseball uniform is one hundred percent perfect and up to scratch, but at least outside of sport he wears normal clothes, which is usually his blue and pink sneakers, the tops of the sneakers hidden are mostly by his loose, black-striped blue track-pants, a light blue hoodie with dark blue pockets, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms and reveling more of the darkened magenta turtleneck that you can see most of through his unzipped hoodie.

"That's great, Cil! Did you do anything interesting this weekend?" Fresh probes, knowing that Cil usually has some interesting sports game and such to go too. 

"Yeah, kinda." He blushes, looking away, one black hand with yellow and pink phalanges, that appear to be floating off his wrists, reaching up to fiddle with a strand of his hair, making Fresh more curious.

"What'cha do?" Fresh asks, grinning. 

"I just went on a date with my boyfriend." He flushes.

"So you and Quill are still together?" Quill has been Cil's boyfriend for about a year strong now. 

All Fresh gets in response is a little, embarrassed nod, making him smirk.

God, he ships those cinnamon rolls hard. 

"Good morning class! It's good to see you all and I hope you had a fantasic weekend! Now, for todays lesson, I'd like you to look at what I've drawn on the board and use it as inspiration to sketch! No copying please, it has to be your own work, not mine or your friends." Mr.Ink greets, stepping aside so his class can see what he's drawn.

It's absolutely breath taking. Ink has drawn the board a deep, inky black, stars littered are it, some how glittering and shining, a galaxy of wonders. And inamonst the stars and planets are figures and animals, the star signs, dancing to a silent beat, all swirled with vibrant reds, honey oranges, sunny yellows, shocking greens, deep sea blues and neon purples. Well, Ink is definitely an art teacher for a reason. 

*********

"Okay class, that's time! Could you please take that bit of art out of your sketch book and put in on my desk for me to mark. Thank you all for coming and I'll see you next lesson!" Mr. Ink dismisses is class, tapping a spot on his desk for them to put their art. 

Fresh carefully tears out his peace of work and gently carrys it over to Ink's desk and lays it down, smoothing it out, Cil following him.

"See you next Art lesson, Cil!" Fresh calls as he trudges to his next class: P.E. 

Great Asgore, he hates P.E.- with a passion, but at least he has his friends, who are just as equally unfit as he is.

*********

 

Fresh turns the corner and walks through the door to the gym, dumps his bag by the door and walks over to the rest of his class, who are chatting in the middle of the large room. Fresh manages to find Alphys in the mass, reading something, probably fanfiction, on her phone.

"Hey Alph-" Fresh gets cut of short as the gym door was thrown open by none other then the P.E. teacher, who strides over to the throng of students, another skeleton monster jogging behind his black-boned glitching form, their skull can easily be seen over the teacher's small frame. 

"All right, ya' soft-ass excuse for monsters! We're goin' to start this lesson off by running four laps around the gym, no cutting corners, then onto some push-ups and sit-ups, and finally, to finish off, we'll be running another five laps, is that clear?!" Coach Error barks, his black, deep blue and yellow cap, hoodie, shorts and sneakers jolting with strange errors at his sharp words.

"Yes Sir!" we all say in unison. 

"Good," Error nods, his odd eyes surveying every single one of us, "And to make sure no one cheats, Palette here will be monitoring half of you." Coach steps aside to revel the other skeleton.

Palette stands there confidently, bouncing on the balls of his feet from and grinning at the other students, his Cheer-Leading uniform, which is made up of a white cap with a gold rim - a thick middle tone blue stripe through the middle- and a smiling buttercup with five petals pinned to the left side of it, a pale light blue T-shirt, a light neon green hoodie with a middle tone blue hood and F on the right side of the pulled up zipper and a thick white line running diagonally down from the left shoulder - the stripe lined with gold-, yellow fingerless gloves with a hole on the tops, middle tone blue shorts with gold stripes down the side rimmed with white, white knee-high socks with a gold band at the top and blue and yellow sneakers, is swaying with his moments. You see, Palette is the captain of the Cheer-Leading team, and has been since the end of his freshman year six and a half years ago and is the life and soul of the team. 

"Alright, start runnin' you lot, everyone who's born in the first half of the year, start on the west side of the gym, you'll have me, everyone else go with Palette to the east side." Error commanded, walking over to the west, half his students following him, grumbling under their breath about their bad luck.

Fresh, on the other hand let out a sigh of relief, his birth day is in the second half of the year, so he's with Palette, who so far doesn't look to bad. Unfortunately, the rest of his friends are born in the first half of the year. 

"Okay, everyone over here!" Palette calls to his group enthusiastically, who obediently follow him. "Now take your time with the four laps, you just need to lightly jog it, and you'll be done in no time!" The other skeleton tells his group with a smile

We all set off at a gentle pace, speeding up whenever we pass Error, who's screaming abuse at his own group, and slowing back down when we pass Palette, who's cheering us on from the side of the gym. 

Fresh's ankle protestes the entire way

The rest of the lesson continues like this, through the push and sit-ups and the other five laps, until the bell rings for lunch. 

Fresh walks over to grab his bag, feeling generally okay after a P.E. lesson for the first time in forever, when he sees Alphys and Papyrus grabbing their bags, which are next to his, both of them looking a little green in the face.

"Are you guys okay?" Fresh asks his friends. 

"We're, huh, fine Fresh, just, ahg, a little dizzy." Papyrus wheezes, Alphys nodding her head in agreement, most likely unable to speak, being the most unfit weeb in the entire school.

"Well, if your sure." Fresh shrugs as they set of the the library to join Nabstablook, who by no dout drifted there as soon as the bell went. 

*********

Lunch and their last classes pasted surprisingly quickly, and since none of them had homework, they desided to head into town and go to the Nice Cream parlor. As they turn the corner to exit the school through the back gate, Fresh looks over to the side walk, only to see PaperJam, Undyne and BP jossling and shoving each other on the edge of the busy road.

Well that's just fantastic, the Jocks just had to be at the one exit that leads to the Parlor.

Fresh looks around at his friends to see that they're all staring at the Jocks with dismay. 

"Let's just wait them out, my dudes." Fresh sighs, to his friends, who plop down and lean against the front office wall.

Just as Fresh is about to join his friends, he see's BurgerPants shove PJ to hard. Right onto the road in front of a car. 

"PJ!" He gasps.

Fresh doesn't even think as he reacts. Fresh darts forward onto the road with PJ, who's staring at the car like a rabbit frozen in headlights, and tackles him onto the middle lane, out of the way of any cars.

********* 

PaperJam's mind is running wild as he tries process what just happened. He was standing on the side of the road, joking around with his friends, when BP must of pushed him onto the road. He'd seen the shiny black car coming straight at him, the squeal of the car trying to brake and the horror-stricken face of the driver, who realized that they weren't going to stop in time.

Then someone pushed him out of the way, someone saved him. 

PJ hears that someone groan next to him, before they pull themselves to their feet.

"Are you okay, PaperJam?" They ask. 

PJ feels a jolt of realization pulse through his bones as he processes who's voice it is.

PaperJam rolls over to see the Nerd standing over him, his cloths crinkled and scratched from hitting the tarsal to hard, his hand held out to help PaperJam up. 

Why did this Nerd just risk his damn life to save PJ's? Hell, he didn't even know this guys name.

PJ let's out a soft sigh as he grabs the Nerds hand and uses it to pull himself up. 

This stupid Nerd.


	4. Chapter Four

It only takes a few minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Someone must of called it. Fresh can't tell how much time passes, everything seems to be moving in fast forward, while he's suck in slow motion. He can't think properly. 

There are only three things he can be sure about.

Number One: The sound of someone's voice, their words all blurred together. He thinks they're saying sorry over and over.

Number Two: The roughness of the side walk under him that he'd been ushered too. The feeling is uncomfortable on his tailbone. 

Number Three: PaperJam's weight leaning on his shoulder, the one thing stuck slowed in time with him.

********* 

Fresh and PaperJam are hussled quickly from the ambulance to one of the doctors offices where the doctor, a Snowdrake, fusses over them. The world still moving to fast for Fresh to keep up.

********* 

"There you go, young man!" The doctor, Dr.Snow, declares after sticking a herbal, magic-infused, polyjuice over a nick on PJ's arm. "Only a little scratch and a little shock! Your lucky that your friend over there pushed you out of the way, otherwise it would've been a lot worse." Dr. Snow tisks, pointing to Fresh, who has a similar polyjuice on his ankle, making the smaller skeleton blush from the small amount attention. 

Somehow, the unfamiliar feeling of his magic dusting his cheeks blue pulls him back in time with the rest of the world.

"Anyway, can you boys stay here while I fill out the paper work to let you go?" The Doc asks, not even waiting for a answer before walking out, the door closing behind him with a soft click. 

That's the only noise, after that, the awkward silence is suffocating.

Fresh shifts uncomfortably in his seat, he's never been a big fan of long, painful silences. 

Ya' know, being slowed in in time really wasn't that bad.

After a few minutes PaperJam sighs, turning to Fresh and brakes the silence. 

"I never got to... say thanks before for, you know, pushing me out of the way of the car." PaperJam thanks awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it, PaperJam." Fresh flushes as they slip back into silence. 

That, once again, is broken, by PJ

"You know, I just don't get it." PaperJam grunts. 

"Get what?" Fresh asks.

"Why you of all people would jump in front of a car to save me!" PJ growls, putting his head in his hands. "I've been so mean to you in the last couple of days, and yet you risk your life to save mine! I just don't understand!" 

Fresh just stares at PaperJam for a few moments, his brain lagging behind a little, before braking out into a soft smile.

"Why?" Fresh smiles, "That's easy, because no decent person would just let someone dust right in front of them and do nothing about it. Besides, I don't think your as bad as you make out to be, PaperJam." 

"Well, we'll see about that one." The Jock grunts as the door is flung open and PJ is tackled by a small blur of black bones and sparkly pink hair.

"PJ!!" Cil gasps, clinging to PaperJam,"Are you okay??!!!" 

"Heh, yeah, I'm fine, bro." PJ says, hugging the smaller skeleton tight.

"You two are brothers?" Fresh asks, but before he can get an answer, someone barges into the room 

"PaperJam, you fucking moron! What the Hell happened??" That someone growls, their form glitching violently around the edges.

"Yeah, I know Dad, sorry." PJ appoligises to his father. 

"Don't be to hard on him, Error, he almost died. But it would be nice to know what actually happened," Ink sighs as he walks in, Palette right behind him, "The doctors refuse to tell us how you ended up in front of a moving car!"

"Well, um, I...." PaperJam stutters, "BP kinda pushed me a little to hard and I ended up on the road, but he pushed me out of the way."PJ says, jestering to Fresh. "He, ah, kinda saved my life." PaperJam finishes, a look of retaliation shooting on to his face. "Shit, I just realized I don't even know your name." PJ half gasps, a light dusting of purple appearing on his cheeks. 

The smaller skeleton feels four more sets of eye-lights fall on him.

"It's Fresh, my name's Fresh." Fresh the little skeleton mutters, blushing a light shade of blue.

"Thank you Fresh, for saving my son." Error thanks, making Fresh blush a shade darker. 

And here he'd always thought he'd never live live to see the day when the Coach was nice to a Nerd.

"It's no big deal," Fresh mumbles, "Anyone would of done it."

"It is a big deal, Fresh. You saved PJ's life today! How would you like to have dinner at my place? It's the least we can do." Mr. Ink offers.

"I wouldn't want to intrude.Fresh declines. 

"You wouldn't beintruding , Fresh! You saved Jo's life! Like Ink said, it's the least we can do!" Cil chimes in, still clinging to PJ. 

Fresh opens his mouth to decline, again, when a small timid voice from the doorway asks if Fresh's in here stops him. 

"Yeah, I'm here Cray, come in." Fresh calls to his little brother, who darts in and clings to Fresh's arm, almost mirroring Cil.

"Oh my word! Fresh, I herd what happened, are you okay??" The little skeleton gasps into his older brothers shoulder, his cloths, a pastel blue and pink cap with FHS in green on the front, a pastel yellow long-sleeve top with a pastel blue button up short-sleeve top and a pastel pink collar over it, the buttons undone, some black short-shorts with white stripes down the legs and a pastel yellow flower with a green center and pastel pink tights, were shaking as Cray holds back his sobs. 

"I'm fine, bro." Fresh soothes, looking onto his little brothers eye-lights, the left green and the right purple, the purple one shaped like a monsters soul, as they swim with tears.

"I was so scared, please never do that again." He whispers as Fresh rubs his shoulder soothingly.

God, he hates seeing his little bro cry.

"Okay, I won't, I promise." Fresh promises. 

"Is this your brother, Fresh?" Ink asks.

"Yeah, this is my little bro, Cray. Cray, this is Mr. Ink, Coach Error, Palette, Cil and PaperJam." 

"I-It's nice to meet you." Cray sniffs, pulling his tear-stained face from Fresh's chest.

"So Cray, how would you like to come to dinner with us and your brother?" Ink asks. 

"As long as we won't be a burden." Cray replies.

"Of course you wouldn't." Error conform, chuckling quietly. 

Fresh sighs. There's no getting out of this now.

"Well, it's settled then, PJ your car's out the front. Fresh, Cray, who's car do you want to go in? There's Error's, Palette's, Cil's and PJ's." Ink asks. 

"Can I go in Cil's?" Cray asks politely.

Well, there's no surprise, Cil's almost the same age as Cray, so he's probably more comfortable around him. 

"Of coarse you can!" Cil agrees whole-heartily.

"You can go in my car, if you like, Fresh." PaperJam offers awkwardly. 

Fresh nods in agreement, still looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Hey Papa?" Palette asks, turning to Ink. "Since we're already having two people over, do you mind if Goth comes? And maybe Quill?" Palette turns to smile at Cil as the said Quills name. 

"I don't see why not, as long as Quill's parents are okay with it and Goth's not busy." Ink agrees.

"I'll text Quill!"  
"I'll text Goth!" 

Palette and Cil say in unison as they pull out their phones.

At almost the same moment, Dr. Snow comes back in, declaring that both are free skeletons to go. 

All seven skeleton stroll out of the room and head towards a car each. Error hops into the drivers side of what looks like a shiny black sports car with deep blue racing stripes down the side, Ink gets into the passengers side. Palette walks over to a little neon-green mini with pure, unmarked, white seats. Cil and Cray climb into a new-looking slim, shiny magenta car. PJ waves Fresh over to his car, a large electric-blue four-wheel drive with dark, tinted windows, a large neon-orange basketball on the hood.

With a click of a button and a soft beep, the car's unlocked. PJ swings himself into the drivers seat with one, elegant movement, while Fresh scrambles up the side until he manages to get himself in, making the taller skeleton chuckle as he starts the car with a soft purr and drives off, Ink and Error right on their tail, while Cil and Palette break off, going down different roads to pick up the other two monsters. 

*********

The ride to Ink's house is surprisingly short, it only takes about fifteen minutes, music playing merrily from the speaker the entire way, killing any unwanted silence. The house it's self is in one of the friendly neighborhoods, every house along the litter free road showing the signs of well-paid parents and polite kids who know how lucky they are. Ink's house is one-story, made of bright sun-bleached birch wood. Out front of house is a deck, half of it covered, the pillars holding the roof of the covered half up are painted white. Lining the stone path to the house are flowers of different shapes, sizes and colors. The lawn out front of the house is a brilliant green, stalks of emerald growing from the ground, only for it to stop, held back by a small sea of gravel. 

PJ parks the car on the patch of gravel just out front of the house, Error's car pulling up next to them. The taller skeleton jumps out of the car with the same amount of elegance he used getting in, while Fresh gently lowered himself to the ground, trying desperately not to slip and fall.

The four skeletons make their way down the down the stone path, Ink and Error up the front, holding hands. So Error's the boyfriend that Ink was talking about earlier today. That would make PaperJam the one who had something on his mind. 

Fresh glances over his shoulder to look at the impassive face of the taller Jock skeleton. He seems absolutely fine now, maybe he sorted out whatever had been bothering him this morning.

As they reach the front door, Ink uses his free hand to fish into his pocket and pulls out a silver house key, which he uses to open the door with a click. The four skeletons file into the art teachers living room, and Fresh can't help but marvel at the room. The carpet is wooden brown, almost as soft as the carpet in his room, but as not shaggy. The walls are a faded white, like old paper that hasn't quite started to yellow yet. Evenly spaced along the walls are bright, vibrant pieces of art, so colorful that they should look out of place, but they don't. Instead, they seem to give the room some more personality. Mounted on the wall among the art is a large TV, the cords attached to it lead to a DVD player and a Play Station Two sitting on a small, white, hollow box filled with movies. The middle of the large room is mostly taken up by a medium sized tan sofa with two blue and red patch-work blankets thrown over the arms and a light-gray love seat, a earthy brown rug lying under them. Light streams from the huge glass doors that lead outside. The whole room fully gives of the feeling of welcome and homeliness.

"Do you want anything to drink, Fresh?" Ink asks, already in his white, spotless kitchen, pulling food out of the cupboards and lying it on the bench. 

"No,thank you." Fresh declines politely.

"Hey Fresh, how do ya' feel about swim in Ink's pool?" PaperJam asks, looking down at the small skeleton with a grin. 

Well, it has been unusually hot for a late autumn day, but the pool can't be that warm....

"It's got heaters." PJ tempts, almost like he can read the smaller skeletons mind. 

"I would, but I don't have any swimming togs." Fresh sighs.

"Don't sweat it, I have a old pair that will probably fit you." PJ offers.

 

Jeez, why did he want to get Fresh in the pool so badly.

"Okay, sure. Thanks PaperJam." Fresh thanks the Jock. 

"Come on, my room's this way." PJ jesters, leading the smaller skeleton down a art-littered hallway and into one of the rooms to the side.

The room his relitively small, the walls and floor look exsatly like the rest of the house, minus the art. Most of the room is taken up by a set of bunk-beds, the top bed made neatly while the other has it's sheets half on the floor. No prizes for guessing which one's PJ. Shoved into the corner is a large set of wooden draws, where PaperJam is rummiging through the top draw, trying to find the swimming togs, his head practicly submerged in the draw. Pushed against the wall next to the door is a large space heater. The main sorce of light is coming from a large, lone window that over looks a magnificent garden. Once again, this room has homeliness oozing from it. 

"Nice room." Fresh comments from the doorway, making PJ snort, the sound muffled by the draw.

"Its not actually my room, I share it with Cil, and we have our real rooms back at our Dad's place, we just sleep here whenever we stay at Ink's. Uh-huh, found 'em" 

PaperJam explanation turns into triumph as his head and hand immerge from the draw, holding a pair of neon green swimming shorts with white stripes down the side.

The taller skeleton throws them to Fresh, who catches it with his face, making the taller skeleton chuckle. 

"You can get changed in the bathroom, it's the door directly opposite this room, I'll meet you back in the living room."PJ tells Fresh as he turns back to the draws to rummage for his own pair of shorts.

Fresh turns and walks into the bathroom small, white bath room, locking thbe door behind him. Fresh qiuckly strips and changes into the shorts, making sure that they're tight enough and won't slip. The small skeleton takes a minuate to look into the mirror. Huh, they don't accully look to bad. The shorts stop just before his knees and aren't a bad fit eather. After making sure his glasses are in their case and that he has all his clothes, Fresh unlocks the bathroom door and makes his way to the living room, where PaperJam is waiting for him. 

Holy. Fudge.

Fresh can't help but blush as his eye-lights graze over PaperJam's bare chest. And he thought the other skeletons face was attractive. God, why did he have to be physically attracted to the biggest Jock in the school? Fresh quickly looks away, pretending to look out the door, praying that PJ can't see his blush. 

"Are you ready to go?" PaperJam asks, and from the corner of his blurry vision, Fresh can see the ends of PJ's black swim shorts sway as he walks over to him.

"Yup." Fresh manages to squeak out. 

"Cool, follow me." PJ says, walking out the open door, Fresh following in his wake, eyes to the ground.

The taller skeleton leads Fresh around the side of the house to Ink's pool. It's pretty big, about three meters, the crystal-clear water gradually getting deeper from the shallow end to the deep end. The area around the pool was made of small, smooth colored stones held together by concerite, the outline of that shown by a white metal fence. At the edge of the pool, on a patch of concerite, are two deck chairs, resting side by side. Next to the pool is a little shed. 

"You go on ahead, I'm just going to grab something from in here first." PaperJam tells Fresh as he walks towards the shed.

Well that's not suspicious at all. 

The Nerd keeps walking to wards the pools gate, the only entrance to the otherwise closed of pool. The latch is easy enough to open. The small skeleton lets the gate swing close behind him. Fresh walks over to one of the deck chairs and rests his stuff on it, before turning around to dip his toe into the water. It's pleasantly warm. He walks over to the shallow end of the pool and climbs in, the water only reaching his hips. 

With out any warning, a jet of water is fired into the back of his skull, it's not hard enough to knock him over, it just stung a little when it first it. Fresh turns to see none other than PaperJam standing there, a water gun in hand and a smirk on his face.

"Catch!" He says to Fresh, throwing a identical gun at Fresh, who amazingly, catchs it. 

"Thanks." Fresh grins back, holding the gun to his body.

"Hey PJ! Did you think you could start the fun without us?!" Cil calls, running from the house in some yellow swim shorts, with Quill, who's another white-boned skeleton monster with a black patch of bone covering the left side of his face from his left eye-socket and bright, deep blue eye-lights, running next to him in dark green swim shorts and his school baseball cap still perched backwards on his head, his green geode stone necklace bouncing of his chest as he runs, Palette and Goth following them in light blue and bold red swim shorts and Cray running after them in pastel purple swim shorts. 

"Of coarse not," PJ calls back, "Go grab the other guns and get in here!"

Fresh desides to take this moment, since PaperJam is distracted, to fire his water gun. Bulls eye! He gets the other skeleton between the shoulder blades. PJ spins around, ready to hit Fresh again, but the smaller skeleton dives over the water. Fresh grins cheekily from under the surface of the water. He can see PJ aim his gun at him, ready from when the little nerd has to come up for air. 

The only warning PJ gets before he's pushed into the pool is a set of hands on the small of his back. The tall skeleton lands in the pool with an almighty splash, which soaks a pleased looking Cil.

"Aghh! PJ!" Cil giggles, pulling the damp hair out of his eye sockets and grabing his water gun before jumping in the pool after his older brother, the rest of the skeletons following. 

"Okay, before we start this, rules! Number one, no holding anyone under, pushing under is aloud, but no holding. Number two, if you get hit, you're out for ten seconds, please be honest. Number three, if you get tired, go to the side and sit out, we won't hold it against you and we don't anyone drowning. Okay, now that the rules are down, let's get into two teams!" PaperJam manages to say before anyone else can fire their gun.

They mange to divide into two relatively even teams. Team Nerd, with Fresh, Cray and Goth, and team Jock, with PaperJam, Cil, Palette and Quill. 

"Thirty second team talk, then WAR!" PJ declares, before going into a group huddle.

Fresh, Cray and Goth go over to the far corner of the shallow end to team talk. 

"Okay, so the Jocks are going to have an advantage over us physically, plus they have greater numbers. But their tatic will probably require them surrounding us, or using their speed and strength against, or trapping us in the deep end, forcing us to be above the water longer. So our best shot is using their two biggest strengths as their weakness- their numbers, their speed and strength. If the go straight for you, step to the side and shoot, they won't have time or the momentum to change cause or dive under. And don't go into the deep end alone, if you do, get out as fast as you can and don't go to far." Goth strategizes, Fresh and Cray nodding in agreement to the ex-student's plan.

"Okay, that's time!" PaperJam yells. 

Fresh and the other members of Team Nerd turn to face Team Jock. And the count down begins.

"Five!" PJ shouts. 

"Four!" Cil joins in with PJ.

"Three!" The rest of team Jock joins in. 

"Two!" Team Nerd joins in.

"ONE!" 

And the war begins.

*********  
Everyone pulls themselves out of the pool, shaking with laughter and shivering slightly in the early evening air. Fresh swims to the side to pull himself out of the pool. He places his hands against the edge of the pool, and pushes with all his strength, but he can barely get his chest out of the water, he's so exhausted. 

"Need some help, Fresh?" PaperJam asks, holding and hand out to he smaller skeleton, who gladly excepts it.

"Thanks, PaperJam." Fresh says as he hurls himself out of the pool with the taller skeletons hand. 

"No problem, and you know you don't have to call me PaperJam, right? You can call me PJ, or Jam, if ya' like." PJ tells Fresh, who nods in response as they hurry to catch up with everyone else, who're still talking about their time in the pool.

"Did you see the way I manage to hit Goth sqaure in the forehead? It was awesome!" Quill boasts to Cil as they walk hand in hand. 

"Hey Quill, do you remember how I hit you on the back of the head and you fell over?" Goth asks, smirking as everyone, including Quill, laughs.

"Yeah, that was a good shot. Took me completly by suprise." Quill admited. 

"Yes it was." Palette agrees, craning his neck so he can kiss Goth on the cheek from where he's clinging to the librarians arm.

The seven skeletons make their way back into the house, where they all get changed, Error's kids in their room, Palette and Goth in Pallette's room and everyone else in the bathroom, and meet back in the lounge. 

Everyone hadn't really had time to change out of the stuff they wore to school, so everyone was still in the clothes they wore earlier that day (well for Goth it was technically work clothes, but still!). By the time Quill, Cray and Fresh emerge from the bathroom, everyone else was waiting. Quill immediately goes to drape his arm over Cil's shoulders, the tail of his open black long sleeve top fluttering behind him in the slight breeze blowing through the air. Cil sighs happily snuggling closer to his damp grass-green T-shirt that lie under the taller skeletons black top.

The group of skeletons make there way out side to the patio area, where Ink's cooking dinner on a barbaque, Error at his side, chatting happily The barbaque is sitting on the far side of a wide square of flat, light gray tiles. The rest of the tiles home a large curcular, woodn picnic table with cup and bottles of Coke and Sprite stitting on it. A breeze gently sways the grass that make up the rest of the patio, the cool green grass is littered with reds and oranges, leaves from a towering oak in the middle of lawn. The edges of the lawn are lined by tall, green hedges, blooming with small, white flowers. The only exits are back through the door or through a arch in one of the hedges, that probly leads to the pool. 

"Hey kids, ya' just in time for dinner!" Error calls over to them, waving a stack of paper plates.

Goth walks over and takes the paper plates from the Coach, his red scarf trailing behind him, waving in the cool breeze, and brings them back over to us, handing them out. Once everone has one, the libarian returns the remaining two to Error. 

"Alright everyone, line up!" Ink says, holding a cooked sausage in a pair of cooking tongs.

The seven skeletons line up in twos, Goth first, with his arm around Palette, who's tracing the half of the white skull on the right side of Goth open black long sleeve top with his finger, then Cil and Quill, still holding hands, then Cray and Fresh, the younger skeleton chatting about some of the storys they were thinking of doing for the school news and finaly PaperJam, who's staring hungrily at the food. Once everone gets their food, all nine skeletons make their way over to the picnic table, sitting around the table laughing and enjoying the food. 

"This is really good Inky!" Error comments, his mouth full of food.

"Yeah, it is. Thank you for cooking this for us!" Fresh thanks his teacher. 

"It's no problem Fresh, like I said at the hospital, it's the least we can do. You saved PJ's life!" Ink reminds Fresh.

"Yeah, with out you this numskull would be a pile of dust right now!" Error declears, reching up to knock his son's skull. 

"Dad!" PaperJam groans, grinning.

The rest of the evening continues like that until it get's dark, with lots of jokes, teasing and laughter. Fresh can help but laugh with everyone else, even though in the back of his mind, he keeps reminding his self that they were just being nice, and as soon as he left everyone would just forget this night ever happened, because for them, it's just another night with the family. 

*********

"Hey, we should watch a movie!" Palette suddenly says as they move inside after cleaning up dinner, it got dark outside a while ago but it had just started to get cold enough so that they had to move inside. 

"Yeah, let's watch a movie!" Cil agrees.

"I'll go set it up!" Palette says, running of with Goth in tow, the older skeletons black jeans disappearing into the darkness of the father into the living room. 

"I'll go get snacks!" Cil declares, pulling Quill into the kitchen with him.

PJ chuckles at his brothers antics, before walking over to the wall and flicking a light switch the room in it's yellow glow. 

It only take five minutes for Palette to set up the movie and for Cil to come back with bowls of snacks. The seven skeletons quickly deside on seating arrangements, Goth and Palette on one end of the sofa, Cil and Quill on the other, Cray sitting in the middle of the sofa, and with nowhere else to sit, Fresh and PaperJam deside to share the love seat.

Error and Ink bid the other skeletons goodnight, flicking off the lightswich and starting the movie as they leave. 

The Lion King, nice. Fresh thinks as he snuggles deeper into the plush cushions, exhortation from the days events finally catching up to him, and by the time the Circle of Life finishes, Fresh is fast asleep.

*********

PaperJam is completely lost in the Circle of life. It's one of his favorite songs in the whole movie, it soft tune never failed to calm him, plus it was one of the only songs she hadn't got sick of after watching the movie more than necessary, Cil had loved this movie when he was a baby and had made PaperJam watch it with him every day. 

PJ looks down when he feels Fresh move at his side, only to see the little skeleton fast asleep snuggling into his side, drawn to his body heat. PaperJam feels a light blush come over his face, but instead of moving Fresh, he drapes his arm over the little skeletons shoulders, pulling him closer to his body. The small skeleton sigh happily, glad to be warm.

PaperJam grummbles inwardly as he turns his attention back to The Lion King. It's the least I can do, the guy did save my life. PJ tells himself, This doesn't mean anything. 

But as he glances back down to Fresh, he can't help but smile at the cute look on his face. He looks completely happy, peaceful, with a small smile on his face.

PJ sighs, looking back to the movie again. 

This stupid Nerd was going to be the death of him.


	5. Chapter Five

The low hum of voices wakes Fresh from his deep, dreamful sleep. With a groan, he rolls over, pulling the sheets of his bed closer around his body. Why are there people hanging around outside the dorm rooms? And why the Hell do they have to hang around his room? Why can't they just sleep like everyone else....?

"Morning Sleepin' Beauty." A husky voice says, right next to Freshs head.

"PaperJam, the Hell???" Fresh gasps, eyes shooting open.

Fresh looks around the room through his crooked glasses. He was still on the love seat from last night, the room around him littered with empty snack bowls, a gray fluffy blanket draped over his shoulders.

Fudge, he must of fallen asleep during the movie.

"Come on, Lazy Bones, breakfast is almost ready." PaperJam teases the Nerd skeleton.

Fresh suddenly realizes how close PJ is to his face. The other skeleton is leaning low enough that he can feel his warm breath tickling his cheek.

"Alright alright, I'm coming, I'm coming." Fresh grumbles, his face flushing a pale blue as he moves his face away from PJ's and pulls himself to his feet.

Stumbling after PaperJam down a short hall, almost tripping over his stuff that someone had moved next to the loveseat, Fresh soon finds himself in the families dining room. All the other skeletons, minus Ink, are seated around a large oak dining table sipping at glasses of orange juice or mugs of warm coffee. Fresh meekly follows PJ to the other side of the table and takes a seat between the taller jock and his little brother, Cray.

"Morning Fresh!" Cray greets him as he sets down his glass.

"Morning bro, sleep well?" Fresh asks his little brother, reaching over the table for a glass and the pitcher of juice.

"Yeah, their spare bed was a lot more comfortable than my dorm bed." Cray replies.

The clattering sound of plates rattles from the kitchen as Ink appears around the corner with a food trolly. The art teacher lays out a plate in front of each skeleton before laying the plates of food along the length of the table. There are platters of waffles, pancakes, and toast stacked high, with a couple of large bowls of fresh fruit and plates of breakfast pastries. Scattered amongst the platters are smaller plates, bowls and jars with butter, jams, condiments, berries and sauces to put on the waffles, pancakes and toast.

"Alright, dig in!" Ink says and he moves the trolly to the corner of the room and takes a seat next to Error.

Fresh hesantly reaches towards one of the waffle platters and takes a few, drizzling them with a pot of blueberry sauce and a large dollop of whipped cream, then topping them with a couple of blueberries. He cuts off a bit-sized piece and pops it into this mouth. The taste explodes on his tongue, there are no words to describe how simply amazing Inks waffles were. Fresh lets out a happy moan before taking more into his mouth, a little bit of the cream leaking from the corner of his mouth. He soon clears his plate, along with a large plate of seconds. Before long, all the food is cleared from the platters.

Pallet and Goth rise from their seats and gather all the empty plates onto the trolly, before heading into the kitchen to clean them.

"Thank you for breakfast and letting me and my brother stay the night, Mr Ink." Fresh thanks his teacher.

"It was no problem at all, especially after what you did for PJ." Ink tells Fresh with a smile before turning his attention to PaperJam and Cil, who are loitering in the doorway behind him. "Do you two mind giving Fresh and Cray a lift to school so they can get the stuff that they need from their dorms?" He asks the two younger skeletons.

"Yeah, no problemo. Come on, Fresh, you can ride with me." PJ replies, flashing Fresh a smile before walking towards the front door.

Fresh hurrys after the taller skeleton, taking a moment to grab his phone and bag from the living room before following the Jock out the door.

*********

"Thanks for the lift, PJ." Fresh thanks as he slides his way out of the passengers side door."

"No problem." PaperJam shrugs as he swings out of the drives door and locks the car.

The Jock walks around the side of the car to stand next to Fresh, who's checking the time on his phoen

"Well.... I've gotta go get changed for school so I'm not late. Thanks for last night by the way it was amazing fun. I'm sorry for falling asleep on you." Fresh tells PJ, a light blush on his face.

"Don't worry 'bout it. Like Ink said, it was the least we could do." PaperJam says, before breaking eye contact and looking uncomfortably at the pavement. "And I'm sorry my friends I been giving you a rough time over the last couple of days... I was a numb skull for hanging around the doorway of a classroom and you were right for telling me so." PJ says with a chuckle. "I'll tell my mates to lay off."

"Thank you PaperJam." Fresh thanks the Jock again with a small smile.

The two grin at each other for a few seconds, and once again Fresh finds himself admiring how handsome the Jock is, with strong masculine features and a stunning, crooked smile. Fresh feels his face heat up even more and quickly ducks to hide it from the taller skeleton.

"Well, I'll see you around PJ." Fresh say, his voice a little higher than normal.

"See ya, Fresh." PaperJam calls out as the Nerd scurrys to the safety of his dorm.

*********

PJ watches as Fresh bolts over the schools dorm building, his face glowing a deep blue.

Wonder what that was all about? PaperJam ponders as he turns around and walks towards the body of the school. It was odd to see Fresh's face turn blue like that at such a random time. Maybe he didn't like the lingering eye contact? If that was the case, maybe he should do it more. After all, it was cute as hell to see the little skeleton blush like that. PJ gives a loud sigh at that thought. What the hell was wrong with him? Honestly, that Nerd had some affect on him.

That stupid Nerd is gonna be the death of me, I swear..


End file.
